Nowadays simulation can be used at different levels of the development process and has demonstrated in many cases its ability to reduce both time and cost for studies: prototypes, mock-up and tests can be reduced to a limited number of pre-selected solutions after a numerical study.

CFD is strongly present at VALEO Thermal Systems and helps supporting the R&D teams to analyze their concepts, to size the components or to pre-validate the product. Many developments are led using numerical methods, and CFD is intensively used for the design or the optimization of cooling systems, heat exchangers, ventilation devices, compressors, etc.

The purpose of this paper is to present a parametric optimization of an automotive heat exchanger in order to improve its performance by using HEEDS software with the Sherpa method. This optimization process implemented into HEEDS manages a parametric design with several factors of a heat exchanger done in CATIA, a CFD process executed by STAR-CCM+® and the Sherpa method to reach two objectives: a pressure drop reduction and a homogeneous flow distribution inside the heat heat exchanger. This application demonstrates the strong capabilities of HEEDS and STAR-CCM+ to implement a robust and reliable automated optimization loop in an industrial development process and to help efficiently the R&D teams at early stages of the design at selecting the best solutions. A comparison between the Sherpa optimization method and a classic optimization based on DOE will completes this presentation.